A federal appeals court has ruled that former President Donald Trump gave up his right to argue that presidential immunity protects him from being held liable for statements he made in 2019 when he denied that he raped advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Quick Read
- Presidential Immunity Argument: The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump cannot use presidential immunity to defend against E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit. This is because he did not raise this defense when Carroll initially filed the lawsuit four years ago.
- Appeals Court Decision: A three-judge panel upheld a lower court’s ruling that Trump had waived the immunity defense by not presenting it earlier in the legal process.
- Trump’s Legal Team’s Response: Alina Habba, Trump’s lawyer, criticized the ruling as “fundamentally flawed” and announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Carroll’s Lawyer’s Statement: Robbie Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, expressed satisfaction with the appeals court’s affirmation of the lower court’s decision, allowing the case to proceed to trial next month.
- Background of the Lawsuit: Carroll is seeking over $10 million in damages from Trump for his 2019 statements denying her allegations of sexual abuse in a Manhattan store in 1996. Trump has consistently denied these accusations.
- Trump’s Use of Presidential Immunity: Trump is also attempting to apply the presidential immunity argument in other legal challenges, including those related to allegations of his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- Delay in Asserting Immunity: The appeals court supported the decision of U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who noted that Trump’s legal team delayed too long (three years) in asserting presidential immunity, thus forfeiting the defense.
- Appeals Court’s Reasoning: The court emphasized that the three-year delay in raising the immunity defense was excessive and constituted an “undue delay.”
- Expedited Consideration: The appeals court addressed the issue quickly due to the upcoming trial in January, which is set to determine the damages owed to Carroll.
- Previous Jury Verdict: A jury previously found that Trump sexually abused Carroll but did not uphold her rape claim, awarding her $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation based on Trump’s comments last year.
- Implications for 2019 Lawsuit: The original defamation lawsuit from 2019 is still pending, with Judge Kaplan ruling that the jury’s findings apply to this case as well, leaving only the determination of damages.
The Associated Press has the story:
Appeals court denies Trump’s ‘Presidential Immunity’ argument in defamation lawsuit
Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP)
A federal appeals court has ruled that former President Donald Trump gave up his right to argue that presidential immunity protects him from being held liable for statements he made in 2019 when he denied that he raped advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s ruling that Trump had effectively waived the immunity defense by not raising it when Carroll first filed a defamation lawsuit against him four years ago.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said in an emailed statement that the ruling was “fundamentally flawed” and that the former president’s legal team would be immediately appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, said the ruling allows the case to move forward with a trial next month.
“We are pleased that the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Kaplan’s rulings and that we can now move forward with trial next month on January 16,” she said in an emailed statement.
Carroll’s lawsuit seeks over $10 million in damages from Trump for comments he made in 2019 — the year Carroll said in a memoir that the Republican had sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store in 1996. Trump has adamantly denied ever encountering Carroll in the store or even knowing her.
Trump, who is again running for president next year, is also attempting to use the presidential immunity argument as he faces charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In Carroll’s lawsuit, his lawyers argued that the lower-court judge was wrong to reject the immunity defense when it was raised three years after Carroll sued Trump.
But in a written decision Wednesday, the appeals court panel sided with U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who in August said the defense was forfeited because lawyers waited so long to assert it.
“First, Defendant unduly delayed in raising presidential immunity as a defense,” the appeals court argued in its ruling. “Three years passed between Defendant’s answer and his request for leave to amend his answer. A three-year delay is more than enough, under our precedents, to qualify as ‘undue.’”
The appeals court took the issue up in expedited fashion ahead of the January trial, which is focused on determining the damages to be awarded to Carroll.
This past spring, a jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll, but rejected her claim that he raped her. It awarded Carroll $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation for comments Trump made about her last year.
The verdict left the original and long-delayed defamation lawsuit she brought in 2019 to be decided. Kaplan ruled that the jury’s findings earlier this year applied to the 2019 lawsuit as well since Trump’s statements, made in different years, were essentially the same in both lawsuits, leaving only the question of damages to be determined.
